Shooting Love In Real Time
by xx-risque
Summary: The four times Sam Evans asks Kurt Hummel to marry him, and the time he says yes. For Kum Week.


The first time Sam asks, they're twenty-one and have just reunited after three years of college. Kurt has just appeared in the arrivals area of Port Columbus Airport and is already grinning. Sam thinks this is probably down to the fact that he's holding a rather large sign that says _'Welcome home Kurt! (I love you!)_' on it in thick black marker.

Kurt maybe, kind of, _definitely _starts running in what he can only imagine is the most hideous fashion possible until he's wrapped in Sam's arms and the blonde is laughing into his neck and hugging him to his chest.

That is, until he lets go, pulls something from his pocket and drops down on to one knee.

"Kurt Hummel, I love you more than anyone else in this world. Will you marry me?"

Kurt stares at him, mouth hanging open wide as he does a rather fabulous impression of a fish and ultimately says no because they're just too young, and they haven't even lived together properly since their senior year of high school and _maybe _it'd be better to take it a little slower.

Sam smiles sadly and pretends he's okay with it. When he gets home he screams and cries into his pillow (like the mature young adult he is, he reminds himself forcefully) because it's _obvious _that Kurt would rather spend his life with someone better, someone smarter, hell, someone who at least _deserves _him.

* * *

The second time Sam asks, they're twenty-three and have just finished moving all the boxes into their new rented apartment in New York City. The only thing in the entire apartment that's unpacked is the huge, ornate rug spread across the wooden floor in the sitting room.

It's not even a formal proposal, really, not in Sam's eyes, since all he does is dig the ring box out from one of his boxes, flips it open and moves back to Kurt.

"Marry me?" He says, resting his head on Kurt's shoulder, wrapping his free arm around Kurt's waist and presenting him with the ring.

Kurt declines again (although he avoids such harshness by just not saying 'no'), closing the box and pressing it into Sam's hand with quiet words about how he'd worry about what his father would say, whether he'd approve and he's not quite sure that long-term is what he wants.

Sam frowns –Kurt doesn't see him, he's too busy rummaging for kitchen appliances- turns around and starts carrying the contents of his office upstairs. After an hour, he's constructed a whole desk from a flat-pack and is just arranging his computer on top of it. He plugs everything in and is just about to check the power supply when he stumbles across the photographs he had on his desk back in Ohio. There's one of his parents and siblings, so he sets that near the monitor, and then there's a bigger, wall-mounted frame with a few photographs of him and Kurt from graduations and proms and Finn and Rachel's wedding. He rests it against the wall and sighs, pulling the ring from his pocket and setting it down next to the photograph.

He had no idea this would be so hard.

* * *

The third time Sam asks, they're twenty-four (well, Kurt is _nearly _twenty-five) and it's the night of Puck and Quinn's wedding. Or rather, it's the early hours of the morning after Puck and Quinn's wedding. They'd both had their own parts to play; Kurt spending half of the night rearranging flower bouquets, or moving a curl of hair away from Quinn's face, while Sam had his best man speech to give and a stupid 'bro waltz' to dance with Puck –to the tune of _I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing_, no less. Kurt had laughed a little, until Quinn dragged him to his feet and made him dance too.

A slow song plays –Sam thinks it might be _Wonderwall_, but he's not certain after three beers- and Puck and Quinn drift together to dance, and Sam grabs Kurt by the waist and pulls him in.

"Don't you want something like this?" Sam asks as he whisks Kurt around in a circle before bringing him back to his chest.

"I don't know. It seems a little extravagant, even for me." Kurt says with a soft sigh as he grips Sam's shoulders. "I'd probably like something simpler."

"Then marry me. We can have it wherever and whenever you want. I don't even care what I end up wearing. You can pick everything." Sam says into his ear, arms around his waist as they sway to the music.

"I don't know." Kurt says, and Sam holds back a sigh. "It just seems too soon."

Sam has a barrage of questions in his head –we've been together nearly eight years, how is it too soon; what more do you want from me; is it something I said or did- but he keeps quiet, buries his face in Kurt's hair and pretends that he's alright.

He finds Puck later and asks him how the hell he got Quinn to say yes.

* * *

The last time Sam asks, they're twenty-eight. Sam has prepared everything; 'their song' is playing on the stereo, there's roses everywhere and the soft, orange light of the candles on every available surface gives the whole room a glow like it's been pulled straight from a cliché romance movie. Puck helped.

He's down on one knee when Kurt arrives home from work, and the brunette's mouth opens in shock –even though part of him thinks he should've seen this coming.

"Will you marry me?" Sam asks; Kurt stares at him, and Sam knows his answer before he even opens his mouth.

"Sam, I-" Kurt starts, but Sam stands up and stops him before he can carry on.

"Kurt, what do you want me to do?" Sam asks desperately. "The first time you said we were too young and hadn't lived together; that was seven years ago and we've lived with each other for six of those years. The second time, you said you didn't know what your dad would say and you weren't sure about being long term. Last week, I asked your dad for his blessing to propose to you. He said he was thrilled and that he was surprised it hadn't happened sooner. And if you don't know whether you want to be in a long term relationship with me by now, then why are you still here? And too soon? Since _when _was nearly eight years 'too soon'? What do you want me to do, Kurt? Was it something I said?"

Sam is nearly in tears at this point, staring at Kurt with damp eyes and a sad look on his face.

"Sam, _please_."

"No, Kurt. It's fine." Sam says, closing the ring box and handing it to Kurt. "From the moment we got together I knew I wanted to marry you someday, but if you don't want that then it's fine. I promise. I'll see you around."

Sam leaves the room, and a few moments later the sound of the front door shutting gently echoes through the apartment.

It takes Kurt a moment to register that Sam is _gone_, might never come back and suddenly everything hurts.

"Am I a bad person?" He asks Quinn later that night, after he'd called her in tears and she'd come over with ice cream and chick flicks.

"Oh, sweetie." She says, pushing his hair out of his eyes. "Do you feel like a bad person?"

"Well, yes. Kind of. I suppose. I just don't want to hurt him."

"Do you want to marry him? Be honest with yourself."

"Yes. God, yes. I just don't want to tie him down."

"I'm pretty sure that he's the one that wants to do the tying." Quinn states, running her fingers through Kurt's hair as he slumps into her lap. "But you know Sam better than he knows himself. He loves you so much and I think he just wants to show you that."

"Oh God." Kurt groans, closing his eyes. "I'm an asshole."

* * *

When Kurt answers, they're still twenty-eight and it is precisely one week since he last heard from Sam. It has not been a good week; he's been sent home from work most of the days, since he is apparently no good to man nor beast once he starts crying, and when he's been home all he's done is turn the ring box over and over in his hands like it will give him any kind of help.

After a long heart-to-heart with Rachel leads him to the doorstep of the Puckerman household at past eight on a rainy work night, he's finally figured out what he's going to do. Quinn told him earlier in the week that Sam had been sleeping in their spare room until he worked out what was going on.

"Hey." Puck says when he answers the door –Quinn must have explained the situation to him, otherwise Kurt's pretty sure he'd have gotten a door to the face- and gives Kurt a wry kind of smile. "He's upstairs."

Kurt pushes open the door to the guest room and finds Sam sitting cross-legged on the bed, hunched over a sketchbook as he draws something hurriedly.

"Sam." He says quietly, and the blonde starts, fumbling for a second as he drops his sketchbook on to the mattress.

"Kurt." Sam says, just as quietly, looking up at him from his place but not making a move towards him. "What's wrong?"

"I've been thinking this week." Kurt says slowly, pulling his hands from his pockets, where he'd been hiding them since he arrived. "And I remembered I never answered you."

"What?"

"Last week. When you asked me to marry you. I never gave you an answer."

"Yes you did." Kurt knows the tone of voice that Sam's adopted, it's nearly watery and sad and Kurt hates it. "You didn't have to say anything."

"Yes." Kurt says, before Sam can carry on. "I'd have said yes. I am saying yes."

"What?" Sam replies, his voice hushed and barely even there. Kurt does say anything, just reaches over and takes hold of Sam's hand. The blonde catches a flash of silver across Kurt's ring finger and he stares at the brunette for what feels like forever.

"Yes, I will marry you." Kurt says, his voice quiet and barely even there.

And then Sam's kissing him and hugging him and crying into his shoulder and telling him that he loves him 'so, so much' and Kurt kind of wonders why it was so hard to say yes in the first place.

* * *

They're nearly thirty when they find themselves in a tiny little chapel in front of their friends and family, saying their personalized wedding vows. Of course, Sam being Sam, he just _has _to mention that it took him four attempts to get Kurt to say yes, and Kurt looks at him guiltily until the pastor tells them that they can kiss and Sam laughs at him.

Their first dance is to _A Thousand Years _by Christina Perri, because even though the song is kind of old now it's still _theirs _and it's something that Puck laughs at Sam for in his best man's speech. Quinn then decides to upstage her husband entirely with her speech for Kurt.

They're still snipping parts of their speeches at each other in front of everyone in attendance half an hour later, so Kurt and Sam just roll their eyes and pull them both down into their seats –much to the amusement of everyone else, apparently.

There's applause when they kiss after they've thanked everyone for coming. Sam smiles and squeezes Kurt's hand, and he has no idea what he was so scared of.


End file.
